Doesn’t it seem odd to you that in a democratic republic, a congress most voters believe does not represent them can be repeatedly re-elected?

How can this be? Isn’t this what democracy was designed to protect us from?

We all have our pet theories, of course, but I think there are a number of items that have come together over the last few generations to make non-representative democracy a reality. We might even be able to agree on what they are:

Most of our elected representatives don’t live in or really have an attachment to the district or state they represent. Oh, they own a home, but “governing” has become their full-time occupation. They really call Washington, D.C., home. Don’t you agree?

Washington D.C., is populated overwhelmingly by people who are busy “governing,” are employed by the government to carry out governing, or are trying to influence those who are governing. So D.C. has excellent representation, doesn’t it? Pretty much everyone in Congress actually represents the federal government and its employees. See a problem?

The people attracted to governing are invariably those with an agenda they feel strongly about (although this is sometimes only personal enrichment). They try to push this personal agenda when they go to D.C.

Since exerting influence costs money (lobbyists, gifts, sex, etc.) only well-organized groups can afford to be represented. “We the People” are too busy working to survive and too poor from paying taxes to hire someone to go to D.C. and represent us. (I’m not sure what the increasing numbers of people receiving government benefits are busy doing.)

The media covering government are nearly all situated in D.C. and the surrounding population centers. The reporters live there. They don’t get out much, or if they do they simply fly over the rest of the country. You know, the other 97 percent of the country that has no representation.

The employees working for government are constantly trying to expand their empires. That’s how promotions and pay rises happen. From their perspective, government isn’t doing nearly enough to help (fill in the blank).

Finally, out in the hinterlands, amidst the great 97 percent of the country that is unrepresented in Washington, D.C., historical revisionism has finally triumphed in the public school classroom, from grade school to college. It goes pretty much like this: “Ugh – America evil. Everyone else better! Any essay or test response in support of this undeniable, settled fact will earn you an A in my class!”

Are there solutions to this problem of the vast majority being unrepresented by their own government? (I guess they would be considered “threats” rather than “solutions” to those involved in the business of government.)

Only one that I know of:

Stop the money. An out-of-control, ever-expanding government bureaucratic workforce is not filled with employees who will work for nothing. Executive orders are only carried out by paid executive soldiers. Stop paying them.

Republicans in the House of Representatives hold the purse strings of government. Period. If they say, “no money,” then there is no money. Period.

But I digress. Why would anyone in D.C. care? “We the People” have no representation, really no nation, anymore.